Aliens landing in big trouble: Aliens Colonial Marines is light years behind Gears of War

The pacing feels wrong, the gameplay grinds and the animation is atrocious

James Cameron’s 1986 ­movie Aliens has inspired – or at least part-influenced – ­pretty much every sci-fi shooter video game that’s been ­released since.

In an effort to assert its ­authority and authenticity, this ­officially sanctioned game goes to such extreme lengths to recreate Cameron’s world that it ­frequently feels like a period piece.

It’s both a blessing and curse. You and your co-op pals play the parts of marines sent to investigate what ­happened to Sigourney Weaver and co on the alien-ridden planet LV-426. In doing so you romp around ­spaceships and buildings seen in the film – some ­locations are ­painstakingly recreated down to the last corpse.

Factor in those iconic weapons, some excellent bespoke lighting effects and, of course, the xenomorphs themselves and you really do have the most ­authentic Aliens experience yet.

As an AAA game, however, Aliens is light years behind derivatives such as Halo and Gears of War.

The pacing feels wrong, the gameplay grinds and both the animation and AI are atrocious.

Multiplayer at least offers something different. The four modes are all ­asymmetrical, with one team playing marines in the traditional first-person manner, and the other controlling the aliens from a third-person viewpoint. Occasional camera issues aside, ­multiplayer works really well.

Soldiers are well armed but ­vulnerable when at close range to their speedy and ­savage foes, while the scenarios encourage both teamwork and intense and brutal stand-offs. It’s also much more fun than the main campaign.

Aliens Colonial Marines has been in development for more than six years and its slavish ­dedication to a much-loved licence can’t hide the fact that the evolution of the shooter scene has passed it by.

Snake reveals a second skin

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (18+)

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3. Out Friday. Rating 4/5

Reinventions don’t get much more radical. Platinum Games has been let loose on seminal stealth series Metal Gear and the results are pretty much as you’d expect – and want. Solid Snake and sneaking around is replaced by swordplay and ninja cyborg Raiden.

And Rising may be as preposterous as its nonsensical subtitle, but it’s also great fun. Battles are utterly OTT affairs that hinge on Blade Mode. When -triggered, you can slice enemies to smithereens like an overly violent version of Zelda’s Skyward Sword.

The plot is a pretentious potboiler told – in keeping with franchise tradition – via a stream of sumptuous cutscenes. MGS fans will hate Rising with a revengeance, but brawlers will be in their element.